The month of July started with a roller coaster race, in which I found myself racing against all odds.
It all started with my VA – Virtual Assistant informing me that she wouldn’t be able to set up the new website pages for our October planned conference. She was having some personal problems which appeared to be affecting her and her ability to work efficiently. After having worked steadily over the last 2-3 months on the site contents and registering the domain name and all, at first I couldn’t believe this was happening.
Well it was happening, and I had better find a solution fast! After all the website was supposed to have been up by the end of June! As the initial surprise began to wear off, I realised that this was the opportunity to use my initiative and prove that nothing was going to get in the way of creating a great website for the Conference.
After trying to do some damage control by asking for help at various quarters and alas, to no avail, I decided to turn to the outsourcing platform of professional service provider, the elance.com
Within 24 hours, I was able to engage a service provider in India to set up my new website. The entire procedure proved to be a great adventure. I needed to collaborate closely with the team in India, so I had to get up very early in the mornings as a result of the time zone differences!
I believe I have never had to work so intensely concentrated with a group of people on the other side of the globe. Yes, I know that most people would probably say, “big deal, what’s all the fuss about?” Well to me it certainly was a big deal.
First of all, I was determined not to just get anybody to create the website. I wanted someone who would have the time and patient to understand what I wanted and get the job done as quickly as possible. To be exact within 4 days.
Secondly, I have never done this kind of thing before, so I felt as if I was plunging myself into freezing water, where I had to either generate rapid warmth from within or freeze to death! Kind of hypethermia therapy. I decided to do the former and build a good rapport with the “new team”. Thereon began a tedious 10 long, dragging days. That’s how long it took.
Don’t get me wrong, the expereince has been very sobering for me. I now realize how much work goes into creating a professional website. Logo and all!
The webmaster team in India, were exceptionally patient and supportive, and I hang on to my determination until all the pages were just as I wanted them to be. See the final work at: www.awakenwomen.com
Notwithstanding the number of misunderstandings, a few confusions and ex number of direct telephone calls, “the show” went on and got completed. I hope you like the result.
And as Sir Winston Churchill once said: “never, never, never give up”. I would like to second that by repeating, you can only fail, if you decide to give up!